Welcome to a Touch of
Australia my name is Kimbys and I was asked by the greenkeeper of Enchanted Gardens, Jan
Lonie, to do an Australian Garden page to add to her site, I have included two extra pages
called Unfriendly Fangs, a site on Australian spiders and snakes! check it out!

Australia has a wide
variety of flower's, tree's, native flora, carnivorous plants and some unusual looking
flora, also Australia is abundant with natural rain forests, flourishing with many
different rain forest plants. There are many open forests that include the tree groups,
Banskia, and Eucalyptus to which the Gum trees belong, and acacias which are called
Wattles in Australia....

KANGAROO PAW; FLORAL EMBLEM OF
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: A flowering plant that only grows in
Western Australia. There are about 10 varieties of this plant which include the red,
yellow, green and black Kangaroo Paws. The plant resembles the paw of a kangaroo and so is
named.

STURT DESERT PEA; FLORAL EMBLEM OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: A spectacular
plant that grows in the arid parts of Australia. The creeping plant grows rapidly and has
soft, grey divided leaves and large heads of deep flamboyant red pea flowers with a dark
throat. Occasionally pink and pink and white one's occur.

WARATAH;
FLORAL EMBLEM OF NEW SOUTH WALES: A tall shrub with brilliant red flowers and leathery
leaves. There are 4 varieties of Waratah. The name Waratah comes from an aboriginal word
meaning seen-from-afar.

GOLDEN
WATTLE; FLORAL EMBLEM OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA: Derive from the Acacia group
of trees and shrubs. Wattles have yellow or cream flowers arranged in cylindrical spikes
or globular heads. Varieties of Wattles include cedar, black, silver, sunshine wattles,
boree gidgee, mulga, hickory and blackwood.

PINK
HEATH; FLORAL EMBLEM OF VICTORIA: Is a member of the epacrids family, they have small,
bell-shaped flowers at the end of stems or between the leaves and the stems. They grow
only a few inches tall and bear beautiful cream, pink and red flowers.

STURT DESERT ROSE; FLORAL EMBLEM OF NORTHERN TERRITORY: A rounded
shrub that grows to about 6 inches with hibiscus like flowers of a pale bluish purple with
a reddish center.

COOKTOWN ORCHID; FLORAL EMBLEM OF QUEENSLAND: A native flower that
grows profusely around Cooktown. Pinkish in colored flowers coming of a long stem.

TASMANIAN BLUE GUM; FLORAL EMBLEM OF TASMANIA: A member of the
myrtaceae family. In it's natural habitat it can reach up to heights of 150ft. Flowers of
the Bluegum are creamish-white with a fluffy look.

ROYAL BLUE BELL; FLORAL EMBLEM OF AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY: A
daisy like flower that grows in the cold regions of Australia. The 5 pointed light purple
flowers grow on a single stem.

CHRISTMAS BELLES: A group of tufted summer flowering herb that grow
only in Australia. There are 3 types that grow in Eastern Australia and one in Western
Australia The Eastern ones have red waxy, yellow tipped, 6 pointed flowers.

FLANNEL FLOWERS: Have woolly, petal like leaves and grow in the
Eastern States and in Western Australia.

RICE FLOWERS: Belong to the pimelea family and grow on the
sand plains. They have small flowers that cluster together in a head surrounded by a large
number of colored leaves.

BORONIA:
A common plant in the Heathlands of Australia. Most boronia's are small shrubs with pink
fragrant flowers. One species of boronia is the Native Rose, it is a highly
prized flower for it's scent and deep color and is extremely rare.

Ferns of many kinds grow throughout
Australia they thrive mainly in the Rain forests and along the water courses. TREE FERNS
are stately, single-stemmed plants with a head of spreading fronds. The todeas are smaller
tree ferns found throughout the tropical and sub-tropical rain forests. EPIPHYTIC FERNS
mainly grow on other plants, two main kinds that do this are the Staghorn and Elkhorn,
they are large, dome like shaped ferns. Another species is the Birds Nest Fern,
these beautiful ferns have long and fragile, sometimes translucent fonds. FILMY FERNS
these ferns commonly encrust rocks or climb up the moist stems of trees and bigger ferns
in the rain forests. CLIMBING FERNS twine around the trunks of trees or spread themselves
over rocks. Some species of climbing ferns are; polypods, lygodium and kaipara.

Elkhorn

Staghorn

Maidenhair

BLACKBOY:
These palm like plants have strap shaped leaves and a long straight flowering heads. The
name for these plants came about that they look like a group of aboriginals standing with
spears. They are also known as Kingia and are of the Liliaceae family.

PITCHER PLANT: Found in the rain forests of Australia. This plant
is a climber with leaves that become like pitchers with a slippery lining that contain a
sticky digestive liquid. The colorful lip of the leaf attracts insects the insects get
stuck in the liquid, the liquid gradually digests the protein content of their bodies and
supplements the plants supply of Nitrogen.

ALBANY PITCHER PLANT: Grows in the swamps of Western Australia,
traps insects in the same way as the pitcher plant. The Albany Pitcher is not a climber
but more a clump of pitcher shrubs.

VENUS FLY TRAP: Has short fleshy leaves that carries a modified tip
that forms two sides of the trap, each side contains hairs and when touched causes the
sides to shut, once closed it exudes a series of enzymes that slowly dissolve the internal
juices of its prey.

SUNDEWS:
Are small plants that grow in bogs or peaty swamps low in nitrates. Their leaves are
colored and covered with a sensitive glandular hairs that exude a sticky substance, this
substance glistens in the sun so attracts insects, when an insect lands on the leaves the
hairs curl over and pour digestive liquids over the insect. Sundews have small pink or
white papery flowers.